The Dell Inspiron 14 (5447) is a solid desktop-replacement laptop with respectable performance and minor drawbacks, like quiet speakers.

The Dell Inspiron 14 (5447) ($699.99 as tested) is a desktop-replacement laptop with a solid mix of capability and features. It's priced for affordability, but small touches, like a brushed aluminum lid and backlit keyboard make for a nice laptop that looks a bit better than its mainstream price. It's not a perfect system, but it's an option to consider alongside leading laptops, like the Editors' Choice Lenovo Flex 2 (15-inch).

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Design and Features The new Inspiron 14 may have the price tag and the specs of a basic mainstream laptop, but it sure doesn't dress the part. While the chassis is mostly black plastic, the lid and underside of the chassis are covered in brushed aluminum, which adds a premium look and makes for a sturdy system. The Inspiron 14 measures just 1 by 13.5 by 9.7 inches (HWD), and weighs only 4.6 pounds, making it lighter than the Lenovo Edge 15 (5.2 pounds), but not by much.

The system is outfitted with a 14-inch display with 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is a common resolution at this price range—we saw similar displays on the Acer Aspire E5-471-59RT and the Lenovo Z40. It's high enough for 720p HD video, but won't match the 1080p resolution of the Lenovo Edge 15, even though the two systems are similar in price. The display offers 10-point capacitive touch, with a sturdy hinge that stands up well to taps and pokes, and which Dell says should stay tight even after opening the lid 20,000 times.

The Inspiron 14 has a full-size, chiclet-style keyboard, complete with backlighting for easier typing in dark and dim environments. A large touchpad offers full gesture support, with all of the same swiping and zooming capability as the touch screen. Two 2-watt speakers offer decent sound quality (enhanced with Waves MaxxAudio software), but the speakers pipe sound through vents in the hinge and underside of the laptop, which can muffle the sound, and you'll need to crank up the volume just to hear it.

On the right of the laptop you'll find a fast Ethernet connection, an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports (colored black instead of the usual blue), and a headset jack. On the left are a Kensington lock slot, a USB 2.0 port, and a card reader (SD, SDHC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro). For wireless connectivity, the Inspiron 14 has 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

There is no optical drive, but the system is outfitted with a 1TB, 5,400rpm hard drive, so there's plenty of storage space for all of your programs, documents, and media files. Preinstalled on the drive are several apps and programs, including retail links to Amazon and Ebay, a few Dell-branded apps, like Dell Shop (which lets you shop for other Dell computers and accessories) and MyDell (formerly known as Dell Support Center). The system comes with free, 30-day trials of both McAfee Central and Microsoft Office 365. Dell covers the Inspiron 14 (5447) with a one-year warranty.

Performance The Inspiron 14 is equipped with a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-4210U ultrabook processor, a common CPU for this price range—the same CPU is found in the Lenovo Edge 15 and the Editors' Choice Lenovo Flex 2. This processor offers decent integrated graphics with Intel's HD Graphics 4400, and is paired with 8GB of RAM. In terms of performance, the Inspiron 14 did quite well, pulling ahead of competing systems in PCMark 8 Work Conventional (2,732 points) and Photoshop CS6 (4 minutes 55 seconds). This is relatively strong performance in these tests, pulling ahead of the similarly equipped Lenovo Edge 15 and Lenovo Flex 2 in both.

Graphics performance with these two comparison systems is nearly identical, thanks to the similar hardware. The higher RAM allotment actually let the Inspiron 14 crank out an extra frame per second in both our gaming tests, Heaven and Valley, though neither test showed anything approaching gaming levels of performance. In fact, even a few competing systems with dedicated graphics cards—both the Acer Aspire E5-471G-53XG and the Lenovo Z40 boast an Nvidia GeForce GT 820M GPU—still won't handle games.

Finally, in our battery rundown test, the Dell Inspiron 14 lasted 7 hours 16 minutes. That's long enough to take you through an 8-hour day if you factor in a lunch break, and it comes out ahead of several competing systems, falling behind only the Acer E5-471-59RT (8:45) and the Acer E5-471G-53XG (9:12).

Conclusion The Inspiron 14 (5447) shows off what Dell does best: deliver well-made machines at reasonable prices. The aluminum-clad system offers performance that matches the more flexible Editors' Choice Lenovo Flex 2 (15-inch), and even exceeds it in one or two areas, making it a worthwhile system to consider when shopping for your next desktop replacement. It's held back only by a pair of quiet speakers and a low-resolution display that feels like a bit of a compromise even at this mainstream price.

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About the Author

Brian Westover is an Analyst for the Hardware Team, reviewing laptops, desktops, and storage devices.
As a child, Brian was frequently asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" His answer alternated between Superman and Batman. This was cute when he was five, but worrisome at seventeen. Naturally, he is now a journalist, writing about tec... See Full Bio

Dell Inspiron 14 (5447)

Dell Inspiron 14 (5447)

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